


Ink On Our Wrists

by TorrenceIsAMess



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: M/M, Soulmate AU, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-15 20:56:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28819617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TorrenceIsAMess/pseuds/TorrenceIsAMess
Summary: In a world where soulmates exist, and writing on your skin shows up on your soulmate. Not wounds or bruises, but ink or paint does. It’s considered selfish to get a tattoo without consulting your partner, not because they’ll feel the pain but because they will be stuck with the markings too.Olivarry, bc I've been getting back into Arrow and I think they'd be really cute together.Chapters will be very short, but frequent. Stay tuned, idk how long this will end up being.
Relationships: Barry Allen/Oliver Queen
Comments: 4
Kudos: 79





	1. The First Words

**Author's Note:**

> This is only my second fic that I'm actually posting so please be nice about any mistakes I make.

Barry had no clue why his soulmate kept getting tattoos, but he did like how badass they made him look. He never bothered to translate the chinese characters on his abdomen, or look up the symbol on his chest. The dragon one on his left shoulder looked nice, and he often wondered if it meant something or not. He had once written on his wrist, asking as much, but never got an answer.

Barry was constantly writing on himself, to remember deadlines and appointments. He’d ask the occasional question through the bond, but never got an answer. It was heartbreaking, to say the least, so once he became the Flash he stopped writing on his wrist.

Not a month later, words started appearing on his wrist.  _ “Are you okay? _ ”

He grabbed the nearest pen, ignoring that it was probably dead from having the cap off, and started writing back. This was the first time he had the chance to talk to his soulmate.

_ “I’m fine. You? _

But nothing came back.

Barry soon found that if he went too long without writing, this would happen. His soulmate would never talk further, just a quick check-in before disappearing again.


	2. Sharing Locations

“Barry, are you ever going to seek out your soulmate?” Iris had asked once. He simply shrugged.

“I mean, how would I even find them? I can’t just go find every tattoo shop in the world and grill them on whether or not they’re the ones who did these, can I?"

“I mean, why not?”

“Iris, you can’t be serious! Besides, they obviously don’t want to meet or they would have done what everyone does, and write down a place and time to do so,” Barry said.

“But they also obviously care about you! You can’t go two weeks without writing anymore or they write to see if you’re okay!”

“Checking to see if I’m alive is different than caring about me, Iris. I’ve accepted it at this point, my soulmate isn’t interested. Now I just have to find someone who’s in the same boat as me and hope they like me.”

“Barr, you can’t give up that easily!” Iris grabbed a permanent marker out of her bag, and grabbed Barry’s wrist.

“Woah, wait a minute!” He shrieked, but Iris was already writing.

“I want to meet you. I’m in Central City, where are you?”

“Iris! Now they're gonna think I’m desperate!”

“You are, Barr. And besides, as far as I know you’ve never taken charge and tried to set up a meet yourself, so now’s your chance.”

“I don’t know,” he hesitated, running his hand through his hair. “What if we do meet up, and they're disappointed? What if we end up hating each other? What if I’m not good enough for them? What if-”

“You’re literally soulmates, Barr. And if they are disappointed, that’s on them, because you’re literally amazing.” She glanced down, and her eyes widened. “Barr!”

“What?” He looked down to his wrist, only to see red ink scrawled across his wrist.

“Starling City.”

“Oh my god! They actually wrote back!” Iris exclaimed.

“Wait a minute, that’s not their handwriting though.”

“Well what I wrote wasn’t your handwriting, maybe they have a friend who’s just as exasperated as I am."


	3. First Conversation

Over the next couple of weeks, Barry exchanged information with this mysterious “friend” of his soulmate, and learned more about said soulmate. Apparently, they were a man named Oliver, he was blonde, and he had blue eyes. He was also apparently some kind of Adonis, and very athletic.

The friend turned out to be a woman named Felicity, who worked with Oliver. Which made sense, because it was typically during a work day and work hours that they talked.

She shared that Oliver was a tad shy to reach out, and was scared of commitment. This was quickly scratched out with black ink, followed by different handwriting.  _ “I am not, don’t listen to her.” _

Barry had actually yelled out in surprise upon seeing it, causing some concern for a couple of officers passing by his lab. He scrambled for a pen, before writing back,  _ “Why don’t you let me get to know you from you?” _

_ “I’m not all I’m cracked up to be.” _

_ “I doubt that.” _

_ “Trust me, you’ll be disappointed when and if we meet.” _

_ “That’s what I keep thinking about you.”  _ Then Barry realized how that sounded.  _ “I mean, that you’ll be disappointed meeting me.” _

_ “The fact you have only brought up the tattoos once is reason enough for me to like you. But once you find out why and how I got them you won’t like me.” _

_ “Why? Are they based on exes or something?” _

The rest of the day went by, and he hadn’t gotten a reply.

Shit.


	4. Felicity Helps The Idiots

“I’m sorry if I said something wrong. I didn’t mean to hit any sore subjects.” Barry had written. 

No response.

It wasn’t until a week later when Felicity’s iconic red ink started showing up again, “So, Ollie’s sorry for ghosting you. Right?”

“Right.” Barry smiled at the chunky black writing

“I’m sorry for hitting a nerve.”

“Don’t be,” Ollie wrote. “It was bound to happen eventually, and as my soulmate you deserve answers.”

“I don’t know about that,” Barry had replied.

“I do.”

“Aww, look at you two!” came Felicity’s response. “Now I have to get back to my day job while Ollie gets to sit in his office, see you later Barry!”

“You have your own office?”

“Yep. But I’m not going to tell you what it is I actually do until we know each other better.”

“Fair enough! I’ll tell you my job, though! I’m a CSI.”

“Cool. Are you more into science or helping people?”

“Well, I do like science, but getting to help people is my favorite part of the job.”

“Good to know.”


	5. : )

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry didn't write for a bit.

Oliver and Barry wrote to each other frequently over the next few weeks, both continuing their superhero duties without telling the other. Excusing not answering quickly by saying they were wearing long sleeves, which technically wasn’t a lie.

But then, Captain Cold showed up and hit Barry with that damned cold gun, and gave him frostbite on his right hand that didn’t clear up until the next morning.

“Where were you last night?”

“Sorry, got caught up in my work. Huge case, trying to catch this guy who’s been eluding the police for a long while.”

“Sounds rough, hope you get him soon.”

“Thanks, Oliver.” Barry followed the message with a smiley face.

Though the conversation was short, Barry thought about it the rest of the day.


End file.
